Next Club Critical Theory Event – Friday Dec 4th 8pm start upstairs at the Railway

media power and politics

Date: Friday, 04 December, 8.00pm start

Venue: Railway Hotel, Southend-on-Sea

Following the success of our election special, this CCT event explores how people make sense of the media they consume and how raising questions about the ownership and regulation of commercial and publicly-funded media can provide an insight into the agenda-setting processes they enact.

We ask whether the arrival of new forms of digital social media is a cause for optimism – because such forms appear to provide a genuine challenge to the vested interests of established media conglomerates – or merely provides an echo chamber for the already converted. Further, we consider these developments in relation to the history of alternative media forms and their deployment by marginalised social groups.

In summary, we address a fundamental question: do people believe everything they view and read?

Tracey Jensen (speaker)

A graduate of Cambridge University and the LSE, Tracey’s current teaching and research at the University of East London looks at how policy, media and cultural texts work together to produce and circulate stigmatising ideas of families ‘in crisis’, as ‘welfare dependent’ or ‘undisciplined’. She connects these ideas to a broader analysis of the ‘post-welfare’ shift, in which citizen entitlements are becoming contractual, precarious and sanctioned. At this CCT event Tracey will discuss the recent explosion of a new genre of reality television – known as ‘poverty porn’ – which forms part of a populist authoritarianism around welfare.

Michael Bailey (speaker)

Michael teaches at the University of Essex and is currently writing a book about public sociology. His interests in this field have led him to present lectures on ‘Globalisation, Anticapitalism and Associative Democracy’ at various international universities, particularly in China. Michael connects these interests to his broader commitment to critical theory; historical sociology; working-class heritage and sociology of the media and modern culture. AT CCT he will examine the history of alternative media forms and their legacies.

Andrew Calcutt (discussant)

‘Hackademic’ Andrew Calcutt was a journalist for 25 years before he became an academic at the University of East London. As a journalist, he worked in print (Arena, Esquire, Living Marxism/LM, the Modern Review), in broadcasting (Clarke TV for Channel4), and online (commissioning editor, Channel Cyberia for MSN). As a lecturer in journalism, his priorities are good copy and clear thinking. Andrew will draw on these experiences when identifying comparative and contrasting themes in both presentations in order to open the discussion.